Good morning from Vietnam!
Society
-- A 40-year-old Chinese man going on a cruise ship fell into the sea and was rescued by a Vietnamese fishing ship when he was floating at 19°N and 107°E in the East Vietnam Sea.
-- Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has ordered the Ministry of Finance to grant nearly 4,000 metric tons of rice to poor people in the northern province of Tuyen Quang and the north-central province of Nghe An to celebrate the coming Lunar New Year (Tet) festival, which falls on February 8.
-- A new highway will be built in the third quarter this year to connect My Thuan Town in Tien Giang Province with Can Tho City in the Mekong Delta.
-- A flying balloon 10m in diameter yesterday fell to the ground in Za Hung Commune, Dong Giang District, Quang Nam Province in the central region. Chinese, Thai and Lao words are printed on the balloon’s surface.
-- Chinese individuals and companies have bought 77 out of 246 land plots near the military airport Nuoc Man in My Khe Ward, Ngu Hanh Son District, Da Nang City.
-- Nha Trang Sao Company, the investor of a construction project that illegally transgressed 23,000 square meters of sea surface in Nha Trang Bay in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa, has been fined a total of VND200 million (US$9,000) for the unauthorized construction.
-- Many households in Thanh Xuan Ward of Ho Chi Minh City’s District 12 have been cut off water supply for five days.
Business
-- Phu Quoc Island of the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang has attracted nearly VND200 trillion ($9 billion) in investment in 164 projects, such as Phu Quoc International Airport, Vinpearl Land Phu Quoc, and Safari Phu Quoc.
-- Banks in Vietnam have increased interest to 7.6 percent a year for deposits of VND10 billion ($444,500) or more.
-- Power supplier Vietnam Electricity has had to use diesel to generate 26 million kWh in the first ten days of this month.